Here we go ^-^

Name: Hikari "Kari" Starr
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Bio: Kari was left on the doorstep of an orphanage shortly after birth.She spent the first six years of her life in said orphanage,until one day a man came along and adopted her.He was kind at first,but soon became violent.Over the course of ten years,her adoptive father beat her,molested her,and made her a slave.She cooked for him,cleaned up after him,and bore his drunken rages.Kari wants to hate hate the man who takes care of her,but because he is the only family she has ever known,she loves him.He recently joined AA and became a somewhat nicer person,but Hikari dreams of a different life.She has a fondness for animals and music,and loves to draw,though she is never able to enjoy these things.She still gets hit from time to time.
Pic:

wickedwonderland:

Eric couldn't believe this had happened to him! Of all the things to go wrong....He wished he could go back in time and redo everything but it was much too late for that. All because of that horrible girl! He fumed as he finished picking up the pieces of the mirror he had shattered against the hard stone wall. It had been a beautifully crafted mirror with intricate steel roses that surrounded the mirrored surface but now it was all gone. Shattered into what seemed like a million pieces. "Ouch!" He quickly put his pointer finger on his right hand up to his mouth and gently sucked on it. One of the shards had cut him. That's what he got for not being more careful.

He had only shattered this mirror because he couldn't bear to shatter the other one. That one was a hand held mirror with beautiful scroll work down the handle and around the iron frame. He hated it. It was the only way he got to see the outside world anymore. He was ashamed to go out in public any more, not looking the way he did. Eric had once been beautiful, but that was before she had come into his life. Sighing he finished cleaning up and went back up to his room where he had left the other mirror. It was sitting face down on his small antique brown dresser and as much as he fought the urge to pick it up and look, he felt compelled to do so. Picking it up once again, he thought he would try a different approach. "Mirror, show me the girl please."

Most of the time the mirror wouldn't show him exactly what he wanted but then again he was usually angry when he tried to look at things through it. Maybe if he was nice, he would get to see her again. This girl had appeared in his mirror a few times and he felt drawn to her. He only wished they could meet, without her running away screaming from the sight of him. For once, the mirror did as he asked and she showed up in it's glassy depths. He was mesmerized by her beauty and couldn't look away. He felt the rage building as he noticed the fresh bruises on her. If only he could take her away from that monster! Alas, it seemed as though he was destined to only watch and feel helpless as the monster that lived with her marked her beautiful skin.

Kari couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.It was hard enough that she had to wear long sleeves and jeans to school-when she was able to go,that is-but adding to her stress was the feeling that,every once in a while,someone was watching her.She contemplated this as she cooked dinner for her "father" as he insisted she call him.Kari wouldn't get to eat any of what she was cooking.No,it was all for "father." She would sneak downstairs after he was asleep and grab an apple,providing he drank enough to sleep through the night.

Hikari was brought back to reality by the smell of smoke.She blinked and looked up to see that the chicken she was cooking was beginning to burn."No! Oh,shit,no!" She cursed,turning off the stove and taking the chicken out.It was crisped on the surface,but she could fix it.No need for him to ever find out-"Kari! What the hell are you doing in there?! You burned my dinner,didn't ya? Little bitch!" A hulking beast of a man appeared in the doorway,and her father walked into the room.Before Kari could answer,the man reached forward and swatted her across the face.The blow sent her flying towards the stove.Kari stuck her hands out to save her face and body,and burned her left hand badly in the process.As she slid to the floor,clutching her hand to her chest,her father closed in on her,and began to beat her.

Hours later,Kari sat in her room,crying.Calling it a room was a stretch,since it was really just the tiny attic of the shabby house they lived in.There was room for her bed,a bookcase with no books,and a bedside table.A single window let in the moonlight that lit the room,and illuminated the prone form of the girl on her bed.Her hand was wrapped clumsily in a bandage,and fresh bruises bloomed under her skin in various places.Kari stood up and went to the window,looking out."Dear moon,I know I ask this every night,but please,if you can,get me out of this place.Please." She whispered.

At the same time,the man who called himself Kari's father was out looking for money.The man had no job,and needed money for beer.He had been casing this place for weeks,and was just drunk enough to finally make his move.He tried to go in through the window,but his massive form wouldn't allow it.He ended up stuck in the window frame,knocking over everything in his path.The noise was enough to wake anyone.

((........))

Eric stared at the mirror in his hand. He could feel the rage building up inside him again. No one should be treated like that! He happened to be watching when she was talking to the moon and for once he could make out what she was saying. He couldn't hear anything through the mirror but he had gotten quite good at reading people's lips. He felt his heart breaking as he made out what she had said. If only there was something he could do!!!

Suddenly he heard a very loud crash come from downstairs. "What the hell?" Gently putting the mirror down, he grabbed the baseball bat he kept in his room and headed downstairs. Usually the sight of him would scare people off but you could never be too careful. He cautiously made his way to the kitchen where all the racket was coming from. When he made it into the room, he stood perfectly still, his mouth open in shock. It was that bastard who had been beating the beautiful girl he couldn't keep his eyes off of. Of all people to try and break into his house. This had to be fate. Setting his mouth into a grim line he walked over to the man, making sure to take heavy steps so that he would hear him coming. He could smell the alcohol on him from all the way across the room. In a deceptively quiet voice that held barely contained fury, "And just what the hell do you think your doing in my house?"

The man looked up from his struggling long enough to catch sight of the owner of the house.He turned deathly pale,seeing him,and hearing the anger in his voice."I-I-I was j-just looking f-for...uh...this ain't my house...I m-musta been sleepwalkin' again..." He stammered.His drunken state made him even less intelligent than usual,thus making his excuses weak and lame.Perhaps fortunately for him,he seemed to realize this. "P-please don't hurt me! I'll do anything! You can...I'll give ya my daughter! A great cook,she is,and she'll do whatever ya say!" He pleaded pathetically.

Eric's frown intensified as he heard the lame excuse this drunkard had given him. Sleepwalking? That was the best he could come up with? Somehow the man looked...familiar. He raised his eyebrow when he heard what the man was offering him. "Your daughter," he said in a flat cold tone. "You would give over your daughter to a complete stranger just to save your sorry hide? Pathetic."

Just then he realized why the man looked so fimiliar. It was her father. With a start he realized just how lucky he was. He had never dreamed that he would be able to to help her out of her situation and yet here was his chance staring him in the face with fear. He knew she might resent him for this but he was unable to throw away this twist of fate. "I will accept your proposal. She must be here tomorrow afternoon by no later than 4pm with all the things she will need. You will deliver her yourself and if I see any kind of marks on her because you decide to take out your failure on her then there will be dire consequences." He glowered at him to get his point across and went outside to where he had attempted to come inside. With ceremony or warning he pulled him back through the window. "Now go! I will be watching you so don't think you can get out of our arrangement by not showing up tomorrow!"

The man,who was now looking more pathetic than threatening,nodded and pleaded.When he was pulled out of the window,he fell to the ground and scrambled away towards home,cursing and crying the whole way.

Kari was asleep in her tiny bed when the man burst into her room and stumbled over to her.He shook her."Kari! Wake up,girl! Yer gettin' packed.C'mon!" He shouted.Kari jolted awake and jumped out of bed."P-packed? Why?" She asked,already pulling a plastic grocery bag from under her bed and putting what few clothes she had into it."Yer leavin' today.I met someone who'll take ya.Hurry up,aint much time.Consider yerself lucky,girl.Ya always wanted ta git away from me." The man told her.Kari held her plastic bag,having no other possessions in the world."But I don't understand.Why...who am I going to stay with?" She asked.Impatiently,the man told her what had happened,then started pulling her downstairs."You're just giving me away? To some stranger,just to save your own skin? What kind of person does that?!" Kari yelled,tears streaming down her face.True,she hated living with him,but some part of her still hoped that she meant something to him.That he loved her,even a little.She didn't protest any more,or struggle.She just went along with the drunk and walked to the house she was to live in,still in her nightgown and without shoes.They were knocking on the door at 3:59 P.M. exactly.

Eric's heart was pounding as he watched the drunkard stagger away. What had he just done? Yes, he had been able to save the girl from her predicament but at what cost? She wasn't likely to show any gratitude for what had just happened. In fact, he wouldn't be at all surprised if she hated him to begin with. After all, he was a complete stranger to her. There wasn't any way to let her know he had been watching her this whole time. That in itself was just going to sound super creepy! The one thing he could do was at least try to make the house look a little more presentable and himself as well.

Later the next day

Well that was as good as it was going to get for now. Eric looked at the clock and realized it was getting close to the time the old drunkard was supposed to show up with his daughter. Eric quickly got into the shower and carefully washed off the grime that clung to him from his quick cleaning. He would at least be clean when he met the girl face to face. Then again, he knew how he looked, his scarred up face and all. Perhaps it would be best to put on a hood so that he could at least cover up some of the way he looked. The scars on his face looked as if he had gotten into a terrible fire, although no one would quite believe him if he told them the real reason he looked like this was because he had pissed off a witch. It was a good thing he had been moderately wealthy and was able to support himself fairly well.

Drying himself off he quickly dressed and threw on his dark black cloak. It had a huge hood that served to hide his features quite well when he went out on rare occasions. Just as he finished putting it on, he heard the knock at the door. He rushed to the door and then paused for a moment to compose himself. He made one last check to see if the hood was covering up most of his face before opening the door and with a steadying breath, opened it.

Kari didn't look at the man who she had called father for so long.She didn't even glance at him,but she felt him tense up and begin to tremble when the door opened.He first impression of the person who opened the door was that they must be a recluse.Who else would wear a cloak like that,and hide their face.Her second thought was that she didn't care.This person was just as guilty as her so-called father.He had bartered her as well.The only difference was that he had won.He got to keep her,and because it was her legal guardian handing her over,and she was underage,she had no choice in the matter."H-here,I brought her,just like ya wanted.Just take 'er." The man said.Kari said nothing,but tried to see the face of her captor.If she had to live with him,she wanted to know what he looked like.But there was no was around that cloak.Kari scowled.Who was this guy?

Eric stood there for a moment and just looked the two of them over. He could see the fear radiating off of the man and could sense the mild hostility the girl was giving off as well. He couldn't blame her for that, he would be angry as well no matter what kind of situation he had been in before. Stepping up to the father, Eric leaned down and whispered in his ear. "I better not catch you coming around here again or you will be sorry. Next time there will be no bargaining."

Eric next turned to the girl and held open the door for her. In a much softer and gentler voice, "After you." His tone brooked no argument no matter how mild his voice was. Most people expected him to have a raspy, guttural voice and were shocked to hear him speak in a somewhat melodious tone. It wasn't his voice that was scarred, just his face. Eric saw her trying to look past his hood and was pleased to see that she couldn't see past it. There was no point in scaring the poor girl just yet.

The man nodded,clearly in over his head.Without a word,he scurried away,looking as if he may have soiled himself.Meanwhile,Kari stood there watching him go with a deepening scowl.Pathetic.Then the man told her to enter.After years of being subservient,Kari's first instinct was to do as she was told.And given the hooded man's tone,it was the right thing to do.She entered,her more rational mind was wondering just what kind of face lay behind that voice.She grudgingly admitted to herself that she liked his voice."Ok,I'm here,and clearly not going anywhere any time soon.So what do you want me to do first? Cook? Clean? Maybe organize your shoes?" she asked,though her tone was not as bitter as she wanted.It sounded more broken,tired,and a little abandoned.She was resigned to her fate,and she supposed she always had been.

Eric stopped suddenly in surprise. He turned towards her and stood there silently for a moment. "No, I don't want you to do any of those things unless you want to. You are free to do whatever you wish here." Of course this excluded her being able to leave. She was his responsibility now, he realized, and he wasn't about to let anything happen to her. She had been though enough from what he had seen through the mirror.

Hesitantly,"Would you like a tour perhaps? You are free to explore, however it might be better to know a general layout of the house so that you don't get lost on accident." He made sure to keep his head covered so that she wouldn't be able to see just how monstrous he really looked. "However, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't come into my room uninvited. I like my privacy as I'm sure you do as well."

Kari stared at the man in front of her.He didn't want her to do anything? Why was she even here? She scowled."Anything I want,huh? Anything accept what I really want,which is to leave." It was not a question-she knew that he would not let her go.At his next words,she laughed humorlessly."Privacy? How could I like privacy when I've never had it? No,I won't go into your room.I won't be coming anywhere near you." She told him,and turned away.She decided she would rather get lost than have to look at a person she couldn't see.

Although Eric wasn't surprised by her reaction, he was taken aback just the same. It hurt, knowing she would rather be anywhere than around him even though he couldn't blame her. Eric called out to her as she turned around. "Your right, how could you like something, or even someone, you know nothing about?" He stepped towards her before she could disappear around the corner. "Look, I know how hard this must be for you and honestly I didn't want this. However, both of us should try and make the best of the situation. I know you don't like me and there's no reason that you should, but since we're going to be living together there are a few things I think you should know. First of all, I wore the hood so that my appearance wouldn't scare you but if you would like, I will remove my hood."

Eric could hear the blood rushing in his head and could feel the furious pounding of his heart. He was reluctant to show her how he looked but sooner or later she was going to find out. She would more than likely run from him screaming but that couldn't be helped. He nervously stood there and waited for her reply.

Kari stopped and listened to him,all the fight going out of her."Well,it would help alot if I knew your name." She started,crossing her arms."And yeah,maybe seeing just who you are would be nice.It's a little unfair,you know,that you can see me but I can't see you.Besides,there's not much that scares me anymore." She said.She un-crossed her arms,freeing up the hand she had burned the night before.It still hurt,and it was still clumsily bandaged,the gauze falling of already.

"That seems reasonable. My name is Eric. And yours?" He hesitated for a brief moment and then slowly pulled the hood from his head. Now the one side of his face was ok but the other side, well that was a different story. It looked as if he had been cut in multiple places and then thrown into a fire, causing the scars to look as if they were melting into each other all down the right side of his face and down his neck, disappearing into the black shirt he wore. He was a 24/7 walking freak show to his own eyes, he could only imagine what other people thought of him. He could really only go out at Halloween without people freaking out on him because they thought it was an elaborate costume he had come up with. The only other way was to bandage his face to hide the scars.

As Eric watched her, he noticed the bandage she had on her hand falling apart, revealing the ugly burn mark it was supposed to be covering. Without thinking he moved towards her with concern in his eyes, forgetting for a moment that he had taken off his hood and was supposed to be waiting for her reaction.

Hikari nodded."Eric.Ok,that's nice.My name is Hikari,but I prefer Kari for short." She said politely.She waited and watched with anticipation as he reached up to take his hood down.For some reason,her heart beat faster and she began to sweat just before the hood came off,as if she were nervous.She almost told him nevermind,that she didn't need to see his face,but it was too late.Her uninjured hand flew to her mouth as she gasped,and tears came to her eyes.She wondered what had happened,if he had been in an accident.He stepped forward,and at the same time,so did she.She raised one hand,the burnt one,and reached slowly towards his face."Oh...I...I'm so sorry...I didn't know..." She said,truly regretting that she had forced him to remove his hood.It couldn't have been easy for him.

"Kari. That's a very pretty.." He trailed off as he noticed what she was doing. Of all the reactions Eric could have expected, Hikari reaching out to touch his face wasn't one of them. He had been so focused on her wounded hand that he didn't realize exactly what she was doing until it was almost too late. He froze, not knowing what to do with her hand so close to his face. He could feel his face drain of color. No one had touched his face since he had become...this, this thing. His eyes widened as he waited to see if she would actually touch him.

Kari noted,somewhere in the back of her mind,how he reacted to her reaching forward.But her curiosity got the better of her,and she touched his face anyway.It was only a light touch,gentle enough to be a passing breeze."How...did it happen...?" She asked,looking up to meet his gaze.She bit her lip,realizing what an insensitive question it was.Her fingers still rested gently on his cheek,and it took her a moment to realize that her bandages were coming undone.She blushed.He must think her so petty and self-centered,worrying about her burn when he felt the need to cover his face all the time.

((wickedwonderland:))

((hello?))

He wasn't sure what he had expected from her touch, but it wasn't how soft and warm her hand was for sure. Eric hadn't had human contact since he had become the monster he now looked like. He was captivated by her trembling lip and didn't acknowledge the question he had just been asked. Eric started a little bit in surprise. He shouldn't have been surprised, the girl was going to ask him sooner or later.

"Honestly that's none of your business, but since you're going to be living here for a while...." He trailed off, hesitating to tell her exactly what had happened. "I'd rather not go into details, so let's just leave it at I made some really bad choices and this was my consequence." He looked down, feeling his face turn red from embarrassment.

He hadn't told anyone the real reason he looked the way he did, and he hoped he never had to. All because he had been self centered and cruel, a spoiled rich brat. He could admit that now, although it had taken him a long time to get over his rage at being changed from the handsome boy he had been to the monster he looked like now. It had taken even longer to accept that it was his own fault.

Kari felt a look of chastised shame cross her features when he said it wasn't her business. She knew that, and yet she had asked anyway. She didn't fully understand his answer, but she wasn't about to pry. "O-okay. I'm sorry." She said, finally realizing how long her hand had been on his cheek and pulling it back slowly. She didn't want him to think she was disgusted. At that moment, the clumsy bandaging fell apart completely, sliding off her hand. She winced as the open air touched the raw burn, and clutched her hand to her chest. "Ow..." She whispered, trying not to make a scene.